UNIVERSITY OF BERGEN

Department of
Biological Sciences

PhD Student, MSc
Ingunn Stautland

Light, feeding and phenology in fish

In my PhD project I investigate the role that light plays in regulating visual feeding and spawning phenology in fish.

I participate in the research project ‘A green-blue link made browner: how terrestrial climate change affects marine ecology’ (TerraCoast), funded by the Research Council of Norway. An important objective is to evaluate how coastal water darkening may impact marine food webs through reduced visibility and altered spring bloom dynamics. I focus on (1) feeding strategies in planktivorous fish and how they shape zooplankton communities, (2) interactions between piscivorous fish and their prey and (3) how phenological effects of light might propagate across trophic levels from blooming phytoplankton to spawning cod. To explore these questions, I work with explanatory models that identify optimal behaviours under changing environmental forcing, with special emphasis on light.

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